Because if we're going to try and stop the misuse of our favorite comics and their protagonists by the companies that write and publish them, we've got to see what both the printed and online comics news is doing wrong. This blog focuses on both the good and the bad, the newspaper media and the online websites. Unabashedly. Unapologetically. Scanning the media for what's being done right and what's being done wrong.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Letter from Excalibur #101

Here's another example of cheapie "criticism" coming from the original Excalibur volume that ran between 1988-98, and this one really tanks:

The writer likes Meggan Puceanu, who became Capt. Britain Brian Braddock's wife by the end of the series' run, and doesn't agree with the idea of terminating her. That's great. But why was she dampening the impact of her whole argument by suggesting that Colossus be killed just because at one point he went berserk and joined Magneto's acolytes and even assaulted another guy (Pete Wisdom?) after he found him kissing Kitty Pryde? Oh geez. Since when was that Piotr Rasputin's fault? Wasn't it Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza's fault? Or, did the correspondent actually want that to happen in the first place? (Colossus actually did end up in a coffin for at least 3 years a few years after this letter was published, in one of the worst stories seen in the X-Men by the turn of the century just so they could discard the Legacy Virus, and even Meggan suffered an awful fate later on too.)

I own some of Excalibur, including 3 of 5 trades published for the first half of the run, which is much superior to the second half, since Chris Claremont and Alan Davis were doing a pretty good job with all the Monty Python humor and other quirky oddities (although I still have problems with how they rubbed out Courtney Ross after doing such a good job giving her a likable persona). But the second half is nowhere near as good, since after both writer and artist left, and the hack writers took over, it descended into serious mediocrity, thanks to the editors' neglect and favoratism for the speculator market. And it was mainly Lobdell and Nicieza's machinations that led to plotlines like Colossus going turncoat on his fellow X-members. Why no criticism for them, since they're the guilty party?

The editor who answered the letter wasn't helping either by coddling this kind of juvenile, nickel-and-dime thinking, proving the editors weren't much better. But then, that's been obvious for years now.

Some way to make a point and then turn it into a joke by suggesting another character be killed off instead of the one suggested earlier by some other adolescent minded reader. Sure, Meggan was one of the best things about Excalibur, thanks mainly to stellar writing efforts and artwork, but to imply Colossus is beyond redemption in any way, shape or form, and fail to take the writers to task for doing something some would surely have a problem with is idiotic and does nothing to help make a case for Meggan's sake. Would they like it if somebody came along next and suggested it all go the other way around? Both Meggan and Colossus are somebody's favorites, in allusion to the famous argument of Mark Gruenwald, and both should be respected equally. If an error was made with either or both protagonists, they both deserve equal treatment and should have said mistakes repaired, and nobody should act as though it's impossible to accomplish. Otherwise, they've only given way to defeatism. Which I don't want to do.

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About me

I'm Avi Green

From Jerusalem, Israel

I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.